Life and music is a long and winding road

Tuesday

Mar 11, 2014 at 12:01 AM

It was Aldous Huxley who said, "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

Lee Jessup

It was Aldous Huxley who said, "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." I'm using the above quote like I actually know who Aldous Huxley is (or was). To be honest, I thought he played third base for the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers, but turns out he's a writer who wrote a famous book called "Brave New World." If I continue down this honesty corridor, I'll confess that I probably read that book. But alas, that would have been at Hickory High School, home of the fightin' Red Tornadoes, in Mrs. Yount's 10-grade English Lit Class, the same year that flaming adolescent hormones caused Mary Sue Bodenheimer to bear a striking resemblance to a centerfold model, so there's not a lot about that English Lit class I remember. Now let's get back to music.In my last column, I wrote about the lost art of reading, so in this semi- spellbinding dissertation, I'm going to share my musical journey with you…not so much because mine is important, but because I'd be curious about where your musical journey has taken you. Like many baby boomers, I listened to what my parents listened to back in the day; drifting off into pre-school 1955 afternoon naps to songs broadcast over WHKY in Hickory, where innocent melodies like "Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes or "Sincerely" by the McGuire Sisters filled the charts.A year later Elvis shook his hips, shook up the music industry with "Heartbreak Hotel" and shook the very foundation of what kids were listening to. After Elvis, my "musical board journey" landed me solidly on the Beatles square, and I have enjoyed the lads ever since…first on 45's, then on albums, then on 8-track tapes, then on cassettes, then on CD's, and now via MP3's I play in my car through my phone – what tha'? – it just dawned on me that each advancement in technology has cost me a bundle. The high school/college/seminary years had me listening to Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Temptations and Four Tops, Dylan, Clapton, Creedence, CSNY, Steppenwolf, The Band, and James Taylor (another one of those artists I have on record, cassette, CD, mp3, etc.).Old Willie Nelson caused me to venture over to country music stations when demon disco took over airplay on rock and roll stations, and for a decade or so I listened to the likes of Willie, Waylon, and Hank…both Junior and Senior. "Old school country" if you will, and much of that still resonates with me today. About that time the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded an album called "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" and I heard musicians that I never thought were cool when I was growing up…people like Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, and Merle Travis.Buying that album and listening to it until the grooves wore smooth convinced me that those guys and gals from way back in the hills were indeed cool, especially a flat-pickin' guitar player from Deep Gap, North Carolina named Doc Watson. When I found Doc, it was as if I'd finally walked onto the right screened-in back porch I'd been waiting to sit on my entire life. Doc was the man, and in some respects still is, for me. A trip with Mary Jo 34 years ago to New Orleans led me to St. Peter Street and Preservation Hall, and that blew open a whole new musical portal that consisted of old school jazz and Louis Armstrong — then up the Mississippi Delta to blues musicians like Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, and Bessie Smith.To bring the journey up to present day, if someone looked at all 2,025 songs on my Ipod they'd either exclaim, "Son, your taste in music is, shall we say, a tad eclectic." Or they might say, "Boy, you need years and years of therapy."My tastes tend to run on an edge today that is tough to define. If I was getting ready to take an 8-hour road trip, my traveling music would consist of lots of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, John Hiatt, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, some bluegrass, and for old time's sake, some George Jones, some early Motown, a few Beatles favorites, and of course 25-30 good ones by Doc Watson. Don't know exactly why I'm listening to more "on the edge" and "off the grid" music these days, or sliding up to High Rock Outfitters and listening to some cool "Americana" roots music. It might have to do with the fact that there is nothing on the radio anymore that moves me. Or it may have something to do with that "expressing the inexpressible" line from Huxley. Aging has made me realize that life is filled with both tragedy and joy, and is oftentimes absurdly comical. I've come to appreciate musicians who are conflicted by life's two extremes, and whose music delves into life's yin and yang. Those musicians who stand just outside the circle have genuinely helped me on my journey, and for that, I am grateful.

Lee Jessup is president of the United Way of Davidson County.

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